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Friday, 2 September 2016

Zika spraying kill millions of honeybees

The
pictures are heartbreaking: Millions of honeybees lie dead after
being sprayed with an insecticide targeting Zika-carrying mosquitoes.

"On
Saturday, it was total energy, millions of bees foraging,
pollinating, making honey for winter," beekeeper Juanita Stanley
said. "Today, it stinks of death. Maggots and other insects are
feeding on the honey and the baby bees who are still in the hives.
It's heartbreaking."

Stanley,
co-owner of Flowertown Bee Farm and Supply in Summerville, South
Carolina, said she lost 46 beehives -- more than 3 million bees -- in
mere minutes after the spraying began Sunday morning.

"Those
that didn't die immediately were poisoned trying to drag out the
dead," Stanley said. "Now, I'm going to have to destroy my
hives, the honey, all my equipment. It's all contaminated."

Stanley
said Summerville Fire Capt. Andrew Macke, who keeps bees as a hobby,
also lost thousands of bees. She said neither of them had protected
their hives because they didn't know about the aerial spraying.

"Andrew
has two hives," Stanley said. "He didn't know they were
going to spray. His wife called him. His bees are at their porch
right by their home, and she saw dead bees everywhere."

It's
a tragedy that could be repeated across the country as cases of Zika
continue to rise and local mosquito control districts struggle to
protect their residents and ease local fears.

The
spray fell from the skies between 6:30 and 8:30 a.m. Sunday. It was
the first aerial spraying in 14 years, according to Dorchester County
Administrator Jason Ward, part of the county's efforts to combat Zika
after four local residents were diagnosed with the virus.

"We
chose Sunday morning because few people would be out and about that
early on a weekend," Ward said. "To protect the bees, you
don't want to spray after the sun has been up more two hours, so we
scheduled it early."

The
county used a product called Trumpet, which contains the pesticide
naled, recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for control of adult Aedes
aegypti, the mosquito that transmits Zika.

According
to the manufacturer's label (PDF), Trumpet is "highly toxic to
bees exposed to direct treatment on blooming crops or weeds. To
minimize hazard to bees, it is recommended that the product is not
applied more than two hours after sunrise or two hours before sunset,
limiting application to times when bees are least active."

"We
followed that recommendation," said Ward, "which is also
the policy laid out by the state, using a pesticide the state has
approved for use."

Ward
says the county also notified residents of the spraying by posting a
notice on its website at 9 a.m. Friday, two days before the spraying.
He added that it alerted beekeepers who were on the local mosquito
control registry by phone or email, a common practice before truck
spraying.

The
loss of her &quot;honey girls&quot; is devastating, says
Juanita Stanley.

The
loss of her "honey girls" is devastating, says Juanita
Stanley.

"That's
true when they sprayed by trucks; they told me in advance, and we
talked about it so I could protect my bees," Stanley said. "But
nobody called me about the aerial spraying; nobody told me at all."

Stanley
said she "would have been screaming and pleading on their
doorstep if they had."

"
'Do it at night when bees are done foraging,' I would have told
them," she added, breaking into tears. "But they sprayed at
8 a.m. Sunday, and all of my bees were out, doing their work by
then."

Macke
was also not informed, Ward said, because he, like many hobby
beekeepers, is not on the local mosquito control registry.

"We
are obviously saddened by the fact people have lost their hives, and
we have gone back and looked at our procedures," Ward said. "We
will now give up to five days of advance notice, and we have expanded
our list to include more local beekeepers."

Stanley
says she doesn't think there was malice involved, but that doesn't
make the loss of her "honey girls" any less painful.

"This
wasn't about the honey," she said. "It was about raising
bees and selling them to other people, and spreading the honey girls
out there into the world. Now, I can't help anyone anymore, because
all of them are dead."